Mindful Technology: My New Theme for 2025.
Why I'm Rethinking My Relationship with Tech, 3 Books to Help You Unplug with Intention & Yearly Themes: A Better Way to Plan Your Year.
👋 Hello, great to see you here! I’m excited to share the first issue of White Space Newsletter with you.
Here’s what’s in store today:
✨ Idea: Mindful Technology.
Why I’m resetting my relationship with tech.📚 Books: How to Build a Healthier Relationship with Tech.
Key reads to help you unplug with intention.🛠️ Methods: Yearly Themes.
A Better Way to Plan Your Year.
Let’s dive in. 👇
✨Idea: Mindful Technology—My New Theme for 2025.
Dear friends,
Here's the thing: I love technology. Maybe a bit too much.
You know me—I'm a tech enthusiast and early adopter. If there's a new tool, it's already on my list. I love diving deep into user experience, exploring their tech stack and analyzing their marketing strategies.
It's not just curiosity; it's connected to my profession and my passion.
But there's also a dark side to this story.
My current reality looks something like this:
My inbox is perpetually full.
Netflix, YouTube, Spotify, and Audible fill my entertainment hours.
Google Maps and countless other apps guide my daily life.
AI tools have become integral to my workflow.
My iPhone is always within arm's reach.
The result? Too much time spent online or just using digital apps. Despite my love for technology, I've reached a point where I need to reset this relationship.
This illustration from Paul Noth perfectly captures the essence of my digital overload.
Which brings me to my new Yearly Theme for 2025: Mindful Technology—because I want to be more intentional with my digital life.
Wait, but what is a yearly theme?
I first encountered this concept on the Cortex Podcast and was immediately drawn to it.
Unlike traditional New Year's resolutions or specific goals, a theme provides a broader direction for the entire year.
Here's why it works better than regular goals: When you achieve a goal, you're often left with a sense of emptiness, searching for the next target. And when you fail at your goal, well, you just feel bad about it.
But a theme guides your decisions and actions throughout the year, creating lasting change.
For example, instead of just setting a goal to run a marathon, you might choose a theme of "The Year of Health."The marathon becomes one part of a larger journey that includes improving your diet, sleep, and overall fitness habits.
And if you can’t run a marathon, you can easily switch and still be on track—and most importantly, feel good about it because you are doing a good thing.
My Mindful Technology Game Plan
For a start, I want to make it mindful.
So it should feel more like a digital wellness journey and less like a project I’m just ticking off from my to-do list.
So I was thinking: How can I use Marie Kondo's ‘sparking joy’ philosophy to clean up my digital clutter?
This is only a start, and I will report back on how it’s going.
But for today, this is what my plan looks like:
To build a good foundation:
I'm reading a few books:
"Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport
"Do Nothing" by Celeste Headlee
"Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman
On the practical side:
I’m rethinking my relationship with Instagram (the social media app I use the most).
I’m reviewing how I use my screen time (evaluating all apps).
I’m making a list of all my digital tools and services.
I invite you to join me.
You can start small: pick one hour on a Sunday, grab your favorite coffee, and think about just one item from this list.
Or you can go big: set your own yearly theme and rethink how you use technology.
Either way, I hope you will find your own balance in your digital life.
📚Books: How to Build a Healthier Relationship with Tech.
"Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport
Newport's manifesto for our main subject. If you could read just one book, make it this one. It's not only about deleting your apps—it offers a deeply researched bird's-eye view of the history of the Distraction Economy, how we got here, and what we can do to reclaim our time to focus on what truly matters.
"Do Nothing" by Celeste Headlee
Headlee explores how our obsession with productivity has historical roots (going back to the start of the Industrial Revolution) and offers practical wisdom for breaking free from the always-on mentality.
"Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman
Not your typical productivity book. The main idea from the title is a reminder that our average lifespan is only 4,000 weeks (Wait But Why explained that concept beautifully in his Your Life in Weeks article). It's like a calm and mindful balm for productivity advice with some practical, intentional guidance.
🛠️ Methods: Yearly Themes
YouTube Video: Your Theme
Who else can better explain the concept of Yearly Themes (in less than 7 minutes) than CGP Gray himself—one of the inventors? By the way, his Youtube channel is great, and I encourage you to look into other topics he is exploring.
🎙️Podcast: Intro to Yearly Themes
If you have more time and would like to delve deeper into all the ins and outs of Yearly Themes, here is the original podcast from which it all started.
That’s a wrap
Thanks for reading the first issue of The White Space! I’ll be sharing more about my journey toward mindful technology use, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.
What’s one habit that helps you stay mindful with technology? Feel free to reply—I read every email.
That’s all for this week! 🙏
📍Written in Bangkok 🏮, 8th of March 2025
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